Watch: Paul Heyman Makes a Surprise Appearance at Evolve 131

Paul Heyman made a surprise appearance at the Evolve 131 event on the WWE Network on Saturday night, returning to the building formerly known as the ECW arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Ladies and gentleman, in case you haven’t heard my name is Paul Heyman,” Heyman said. “And to be blunt, I’m honored and I’m privileged… No, no, thank you, because I’m honored and I’m privileged to be back home.

“I have for many years been offered different guest spots on different shows,” he continued. I don’t do conventions, I don’t do guest appearances on things. And to be very honest with you, if you would indulge me just to be personal for a moment I wasn’t invited to come to this show. No, because they know I always turn these things down, so they didn’t bother to invite me. To be very blunt with you, I asked to be here tonight.

Heyman said the reason he wanted to appear was to be apart of the future of professional wrestling. He opted to ring announce the next match, which turned out to be a “Winner Take All” match between WWN Champion JD Drake and Evolve Champion Austin Theory.

On top of continuing his role as Brock Lesnar’s advocate, Heyman was announced as the executive director of Raw back in late June. Eric Bischoff will serve the same role on SmackDown Live as the two work with their respective show’s creative teams.

“In their executive roles, Heyman and Bischoff will oversee the creative development of WWE’s flagship programming and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business,” WWE’ press release on the hirings read. “The creation of these roles further establishes WWE’s ability to continuously reinvent its global brand while providing two distinct creative processes for its flagship shows.”

Heyman spoke about the idea of returning to a role in WWE’s creative in a recent interview with ComicBook.com

“I have interest in anything that serves the product and whether that’s performing with Brock Lesnar, or producing Brock Lesnar, or working with Ronda Rousey, or any of the new talents that are about to explode in 2019 and 2020,” Heyman said. “I serve at the pleasure of the WWE audience and so that every one knows I’m not just paying lip services with that statement. Please note, I didn’t give the politically correct, public relations statement of ‘I serve at the pleasure of the WWE Universe.’ I meant what I said, I serve at the behest and the pleasure of the WWE audience.

“Anything that I can do to deliver to them a better product, a more forward thinking presentation, a more innovative approach to what WWE and or sports entertainment should be in 2020, 2021, 2022 etc., moving forward, that’s what I’m interested in being involved in,” he added.